AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Lady Vale had ordered a tray of tea and cakes brought into her garden. All around them flowers blossomed, and bees buzzed lazily from bloom to bloom. It was a lovely setting. But Helen had trouble keeping the tears from her eyes.
Lady Vale laid a hand on her arm. “I am sorry.”
Helen nodded. “I thought I’d fled far enough away that he would not find me or the children.”
“As did I.” Lady Vale took a very small sip of her tea. “I think, though, that between my husband and Sir Alistair, there is hope that your children will be returned to you.”
“God willing,” Helen said fervently. She didn’t know what she’d do without her babes, couldn’t imagine a life lived without ever seeing them again. “Lister has offered to give them back to me if I return to him.”
Lady Vale went very still, her back straight, her light brown eyes clear and focused on Helen. She wasn’t a beautiful woman—her face was too plain, her color too ordinary—but her countenance was pleasing. Then, too, she had a new serenity about her since the last time Helen had seen her, a little over a month ago now.
“Will you go to him?” Lady Vale asked quietly.
“I…” Helen looked down at the teacup in her lap. “I don’t want to, of course. But if it’s the only way to see my children again, how can I not?”
“What about Sir Alistair?”
Helen looked at her mutely.
“I noticed…” Lady Vale hesitated delicately. “I couldn’t help but notice that Sir Alistair has come all the way to London for you.”
“He has been very kind to my children,” Helen said. “I think he may’ve grown fond of them.”
“And of you?” the viscountess murmured.
“Perhaps.”
“In any case, I think he must have an opinion about the matter.”
“He doesn’t like the idea, naturally.” Helen looked frankly at the viscountess. “But should that even matter? My children need me. I need them.”
“But if he can rescue them?”
“And then what?” Helen whispered. “What kind of life might I have with him? I don’t want to be another man’s mistress and yet there doesn’t seem to be any other way that I can be with him.”
“Marriage?”
“He hasn’t mentioned it.” Helen shook her head and smiled slightly. “I can’t believe I’m discussing this so bluntly with you. Don’t you disapprove of me?”
“Not at all. I did send you to his castle in the first place.”
Helen stared at the other woman. Lady Vale had a slight frown between her straight eyebrows, and one hand was rubbing her middle. But at Helen’s glance, she looked up and smiled very slowly.
Helen’s eyes widened. “You… ?”
Lady Vale nodded. “Oh, indeed.”
“But… but his castle was so filthy!”
“And I take it not anymore,” Lady Vale said complacently.
Helen huffed. “Most of it. There are still corners that I’m not going into without boiling water and good lye soap. I cannot believe you sent me there knowing how awful it was.”
“He needed you.”
“His castle needed me,” Helen corrected.
“Sir Alistair, too, I think,” Lady Vale said. “He struck me as a very lonely man when I saw him. And you’ve performed a miracle already—you’ve got him to journey to London.”
